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A man who cannot hear displeasing things, without visible marks of anger or uneasiness, or pleasing ones without a sudden burst of joy, a cheerful eye, or an expanded face, is at the mercy of every knave.

II. People are better found out in their unguarded hours, than by the principal actions of their lives: the first is nature, the second art.

He who never misbehaved either in joy, in grief, or surprise, must have his wisdom at command, in a manner almost superior to humanity, and may be pronounced a true hero.

Wisdom and virtue are two infallible specificks against all the crosses and accidents of human life.

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THE poor man, who envies not the rich, and cheerfully spares something for him that is poorer, is, in the realms of humanity, the king of kings.

Conscience admonishes us as a friend, before it punish

us as an enemy.

Probity and justice are the foundation of society they form its security-goodness and beneficence, its utility--gentleness, affection, and politeness, its charms.

II. Laziness is generally punished with poverty and want; but he who rises early, and is industrious and temperate, will acquire health and riches.

Study economy: it is easier to squander away property tlan to gain it.

Wars are regulated robberies and piracies.

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PERHAPS every man may date the predominance of those desires that disturb his life, and contaminate his conscience, from some unhappy hour, when too much leisure exposed him to their incursions; for he has lived with little observation, either to himself or others, who does not know, that to be idle is to be vicious.

II. There never was any man so insensible as not to per ceive a Deity throughout the ordinary course of nature, though many have been so obstinately ungrateful as not to confess it.

To neglect at any time preparation for death, is to sleep on our post at a siege; but to omit it in old age, is to sleep at an attack.

Prepare to part with life willingly study more how to die than how to live. If you would live till you are old, live as if you were to die when you are young.

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COWARDS die many times; the valiant never taste of death but once.

Temperance, by fortifying the mind and body, leads to happiness intemperance, by enervating the mind and body, ends generally in misery.

Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious ; but an ill one more contemptible. Vice is infamous, though in a prince; and virtue honourable, though in a peasant.

II. Almost every object that attracts our notice, has its bright and its dark side. He who habituates himself to look at the displeasing side will sour his disposition, and, consequently, impair his happiness; while he who constantly beholds it on the bright side, insensibly meliorates his temper, and, in consequence of it, improves his own happiness, and the happiness of all around him.

LESSON · LI.

I CONSIDER a human soul, without education, like marble in the quarry; which shows none of its inherent beauties, till the skill of the polisher fetches out the colours, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein, that runs through the body of it.

II. The subject of a discourse being opened, explained, and confirmed; that is to say, the speaker having gained the attention and judgment of his audience, he must proceed. to complete his conquest over the passions: such as imagination, admiration, surprise, hope, joy, love, fear, grief, anger. Now he must begin to exert himself; here it is, that a fine genius may display itself, in the use of amplification, enumeration, interrogation, metaphor, and every ornament that can render a discourse entertaining, winning, striking, and enforcing.

III. I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life; nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers; nor-things present, nor things to come; nor height, nor depth; nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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AS beauty of person, with an agreeable carriage, pleases the eye, and that pleasure consists in observing that all the parts have a certain elegance, and are proportioned to each other; so does decency of behaviour obtain the approbation of all with whom we converse, from the order, consistency, and moderation of our words and actions.

II. If Pericles, as historians report, could shake the firmest resolutions of his hearers, and set the passions of all Greece in a ferment, when the publick welfare of his coun try, or the fear of hostile invasions, was the subject; what may we not expect from that orator, who, with a becoming energy, warns his audience against those evils which have no remedy, when once undergone, either from prudence or time?

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THOUGH good sense is not in the number, nor always, it must be owned, in the company of the sciences; yet it is (as the most sensible of the poets has justly ob served) fairly worth the seven.

An elevated genius, employed in little things, appears (to use the simile of Longinus) like the sun in his evening declination; he remits his splendour, but retains his magnitude; and pleases more, though he dazzles less.

II. The horror with which we entertain the thoughts of death, (or indeed of any future evil) and the uncertainty of its approach, fill a melancholy mind with innumerable apprehensions and suspicions.

If envious people were to ask themselves, whether they would exchange their entire situations, with the persons envied, (I mean their minds, passions, notions, as well as their persons, fortunes, dignities, &c.)-I presume the self-love, common to all human nature, would generally make them prefer their own condition.

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ONE day, when the Moon was under an eclipse, she complained thus to the Sun of the discontinuance of his favours. My dearest friend, said she, why do you not shine upon me as you used to do? Do I not shine upon thee? said the Sun: I am very sure that I intend it. O no, replies the Moon: but now I perceive the reason. I see that dirty planet, the Earth, is got between us.

Scarching every kingdom for the man who has the least comfort in life, where is he to be found? in the royal pal ace. What! His majesty? Yes; especially if he be a despot.

II. You have obliged a person: Very well! what would you have more; is not the consciousness of doing good a sufficient reward? .

A certain passenger at sea had the curiosity to ask the pilot of the vessel, what death his father died of. What death said the pilot; why he perished at sea, as my grandfather did before him. And are you not afraid of trusting yourself to an element that has proved thus fatal to your family? Afraid! by no means: Is not your father dead? Yes; but he died in his bed. And why then, returned the pilot, are you not afraid of trusting yourself to your bed?

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CONSULT your whole nature. Consider yourselves, not only as sensitive, but as rational beings; not only as rational, but social; not only as social, but immortal.

After we have practised good actions a while, they become easy; and when they are easy, we begin to take pleasure in them; and when they please us, we do them fre quently, and by frequency of action, a thing grows into a habit; and a confirmed habit is a second kind of nature; and so far as any thing is natural, so far it is necessary, and we can hardly do otherwise; nay, we do it many times when we do not think of it.

II. It is pleasant to be virtuous and good, because that is to excel many others; it is pleasant to grow better, because that is to excel ourselves; it is pleasant to mortify and subdue our lusts, because that is victory; it is pleasant to command our appetites and passions, and to keep them in due order, within the bounds of reason and religion, because that is empire.

A WISE man

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endeavours to shine in himself; a fool to outshine others. The former is humbled by the sense of his own infirmities; the latter is lifted up by the discovery of those which he observes in others. The wise man considers what he wants; and the fool what he abounds in. The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation, and the fool when he recommends himself to the applause of those about him.

II. Where opportunities of exercise are wanting, temperance may in a great measure supply its place. If exercise throws off all superfluities, temperante prevents them; if exercise clears the vessels, temperance neither satiates nor overstrains them; if exercise raises proper ferments in the humours, and promotes the circulation of the blood, temperance gives nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigour; if exercise dissipates a growing distemper, temperance starves it.

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